Metallic fence



G. HANIKA. I I METALLIC FENCE.

No. 351,763. Patented Nov. 2, 18.86.

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QM ZW/ UNITED STATES PATENT OF ICE.

CHRISTIAN HANIKA, or SPRINGFIELD, OHIO.

METALLIC FENCE.

SPECIFICATIONforming part of Letters Patent No. 351,763, dated November 2, 1886.

Application filed May 8, 1886.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHRISTIAN HANIKA, of the city of Springfield, county of Clark, and

' State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvementsin Metallic Fences, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to metallic fences, and is intended especially as an improvement upon the metallic fence described and claimed in United States Patent No. 289,253, dated November 27, 1883, and Patent No. 330,583, heretofore granted to me, and to which referencemay be had:

. gaged by the depending filling-piece.

The chief object of my present invention is to provide an ornament which shall have a bearing upon the rail at each side of the picket, and to provide said ornament with an arm which shall bear upon therail for a distance equal to the entire width of the said ornament, to thereby obviate any tendency of the ornament being moved or sprung sidewise- Myinvention consists in the construction of q the ornament for holding the rail and picket together, and the arrangement of the-several parts of the fence, substantially as hereinafter described.

Figure 1 represents in front elevation a portion of a fence as constructed in accordance with my invention, one ornament and a portion of the supporting-rail and its picket being shown, the ornament being in place, but

loose upon the rail, which position it occupies priorto being pressed closely into contact with the rail; Fig. 2, a side elevation of the same, the picket being partially in section, Fig. 3, a side elevation showing the ornament as pressed closely into contactrwith the rail, the picket being pressed into engagement with the rail by means of the filling-piece, which is pressed into the picket-opening in the rail betweep the picket and rail,- and Fig. 4, de-

Serial No. 201,527. (No model.)

tails of the picket and its supporting-rail, the A rail being shown in plan view, and the picket being shown in cross-section on dotted line as m, Fig. 1.

In the drawings, A represents the picketsupporting rail, which has a series of openings, A, formed therein for the reception of the pickets B, which pickets have notches b cut in their periphery, which parts will be preferably of the construction described in the patent heretofore referred to, with the exception that instead of the rail shown in the first-named patent, a channel rail will preferably be used.

The ornament O, of any suitable material, is constructed in one piece, with eyes 0 at its opposite ends, to encircle the picket B above and below the rail A, and will be of any desired configuration, and more or less'ornamental.

As shown in the drawings, the ornament O is constructed with side arms or webs, dd,extending from end to end of the ornament, the said webs extending from the upper picketencircling eyes, c,.downward and outward in a line substantially central to a line drawn through the center of the picket until they come in contact with the rail A, where they extend outward in the direction of the width of the rail, around and under the same, thus forming the bearings e e for the rail at one side above and below, extending from the center of the rail above tothe edge and around the edge to the center of the rail below, whence they continue downward and inward to the eyes 0, at the extreme lower end of the ornament. Extending from the arm (1 to the arm it, above the rail A and in close proximity thereto, is a cross-bar, E, which cross-bar extends along the 'rail in the direction of its length on the side opposite the side which the bearings e e of the ornament engage, and on the side of the picket opposite to that which is notched, the said cross-bar being provided at. its center with a depending filling-piece, F, to be pressed downward between the rail A and the picket B in the picket-opening A, which will press the picket backward until its notch'lr engages with theweb of the rail, thus wedging the parts and securely looking them in place.

This crossbar E will normally, or

prior to being pressed down against the rail, be bowed upward sufficiently far to permit the lower end of the filling-piece to clear the upper face of the rail.

The bearings e c for the one side of the rail will be sufficiently wide to permit the rail to be placed between them without binding in putting the fence together.

The fence is put together as follows: The ornament is first placed inthe proper position upon the rail, the bearings e e engaging one side thereof, and the cross-bar E,with its filling-piece F, being bowed upward, as shown in Fig. l of the drawings, after which the picket is inserted through the upper picket-encircling eyes of the ornament,down through the opening A in the rail,and through the lowerpicket-encircling eyes until its notch is aligned with the web of the rail, after which the ornamentis engaged by aproper tool,which presses the arms (l d at their bearings e e upward and downward at the lower and upper sides of the rail until the bearings e 0 contact closelywith the rail above and below, and at the same time the crossbar E is pressed downward until it bears its'entire length upon the rail, which will press its filling-piece F into the opening A between the picket and rail, and thereby force the picket over until its notch,which is at the opposite side of the said picket, engages with the web of the channel or other rail, thus rigidly securing the parts together.

The object of providing the cross-bar E to extend across the upper part of the rail in the direction ot'its length is to give a long fiat bearing for the rail the full width of the ornament, and prevent any tendency in the ornament and picket to turn out of line, this being the essen-.

tial feature of my invention.

If desired, the cross-bar might extend across the rail upon the same side that the bearings c e engage the rail, the picket in sucli case being notched upon the opposite side, and,if desired,the ornament might be formed with bearings similar to e e to engage the rail at both sides. Therefore I do not desire to limit myself to the special construction shown in the drawings.

The opening A in the rail will preferably be round upon three sides and straight a portion of its diameter, as shown in Fig. 4. This, however, might be varied, as desired.

rail to more thoroughly support the rail against lateral or tipping movement.

In securing the rail in place, the tool which acts upon the ornament to press it in contact with the rail will grasp the cross-bar E above and near its center, and at the same time grasp the webs of the ornament (which extend around and above and below,and form the bearings e e for the rail) both at their upper and under sides, or at points above and below the rail,so that while pressing the cross-bar E close against the rail to press its filling-piece F into the openingin the rail between the picket and rail, the webs of the ornament which extend above and below the rail, and form bearings e e therefor, as shown, will at the same operation and simultaneously be pressed against the rail above and below, thereby firmly securing the parts together at one operation and at the same time. This manner of pressing all bearing parts of the ornament against the rail and into position at one and the same time prevents all possibility of the rails being tipped or thrown out of line during the operation of securing the parts in place, as would be the injurious result were the parts of the ornament which form the bearings for the rail pressed into position each separately.

I claim-- In a rail-and-pieket fastening for metallic fences, the locking device composed of the scroll or ornament having the bearings e c to engage the side of the rail and the cross-bar E, extending the entire width of the scroll or ornament in close proximity to the face of the rail, and having the depending filling-pieceto CHRISTIAN HANIKA.

In presence of- P. J. GLEVENGER, N. E. G. WHITNEY. 

